25 April 2011

Semana Santa Success

I just got back from the Corn Islands on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua with my friends Julie and Jocelyn. Up until the day before it didn’t seem real that we were actually going to go. We had to get permission from Peace Corps to go on vacation (even though we didn’t miss any school because there is no school during Holy Week) and we had to get permission from the U.S. Embassy. Then we bought the plane tickets from Managua to Big Corn Island. And it still hadn’t sunk in. All of these plans were finalized about 2 weeks before our departure date. Oh, and we didn’t have a place to stay yet either. We tried emailing a few places the week before we left but we were warned that Semana Santa (Holy Week) was the busiest time on the islands and that everywhere was going to be booked. Show up without a reservation at your own risk…which is exactly what we did.

The flight from Managua to Big Corn Island is a little over an hour and we left early on Saturday morning. We were able to stay with on of Jocelyn’s friends in Managua who works for the Embassy on Friday night, and she even took us to the airport at the crack of dawn on Saturday. Once on Big Corn we took a taxi to the dock and got on a 30 minute boat to Little Corn. Within minutes of being on Big Corn I already ran into someone I knew from my town. Later in the week we’d run into at least 5 other people we knew either from our towns or Peace Corps. Small world!

We found a place to stay on Little Corn Island for the first night after only two tries and considered ourselves lucky. We got settled and set out to find a place for the rest of the week. After a long day of wandering and sort of getting lost…yes, on a one square mile island…we stumbled upon a really neat place that happened to have a cabin for three available for the rest of the week. We were psyched and relieved.

This place we found, called Ensueños, was being run by a guy from France and a guy (the chef) from Italy. The “hotel,” if you can call it that, consisted of just a couple cabins created out of coconut trees, bamboo, sea shells, and a little cement. There was no electricity, except for in one bigger cabin which was generated by solar panels, so we were generally in bed by 7pm, after it got dark. The water was hand cranked (by the guests) out of a well. And there were enough mosquitoes to kill an army of elephants, which we found out after the first night without mosquito nets (they were being washed). Even with the mosquito nets, sleep was a little difficult due to the swaying and creaking of the coconut tree that was built into our cabin. But the atmosphere there was so relaxing during the day that we tried to put up with the lack of uninterrupted sleep at night.

We woke up early and filled our days with swimming in the ocean, reading, napping and going into town. Our tight Peace Corps Volunteer budget resulted in a diet of coconut bread, beans and homemade ice cream sold in a bag. Every day we went into town to buy and eat the bread, beans and ice cream and get into range of cell phone service so we could keep in contact with the rest of the world. One day we changed up the routine and went snorkeling where we saw some nurse sharks, manta rays, lots of cool fish and a ton of coral. After 5 days on Little Corn we went back to Big Corn for 2 days before our flight back to Managua on Saturday, where we continued the coconut bread, beans and homemade ice cream diet…with a couple splurges on pizza and rare American candy bars from a nearby convenience store.

It was a really great trip and I’m glad we went. I came back to a room full of dirt and dust and went right to work cleaning. Everything is now clean and my clothes are washed and hanging up to dry. I’m going to relax and enjoy the last day of vacation before it’s back to work on Monday.

Bambi

Bambi

World Map

World Map

my bed

my bed

my sister and her novio

my sister and her novio

the little birds in my kitchen

the little birds in my kitchen

a street and street dog

a street and street dog

the church

the church

the park

the park

an interesting mode of transportation

an interesting mode of transportation

viva la revolución

viva la revolución